Fire Marked

by Val St. Crowe

  “Maybe he got bored,” I said. “I hear that after people have been alive a long time, they just start getting tired of living.”

  Lachlan glanced at me. “Really?”

  I shrugged. “My great-grandmother said that it happens to dragons too. She said that there’s only so long you can stay alive before everything starts seeming like a broken record. She said that dragons die when they’re around three hundred years old not because their bodies give out but because that’s as long as anyone can take.”

  Lachlan licked his lips. “I don’t know if that’s true.”

  “Yeah, I don’t know if I see it either,” I said. “But… I’ve only been alive a few decades.”

  Lachlan got up from the table. He picked up his plate and took it over to the sink. “You ever think about what’s going to happen with us?”

  “What do you mean?” I turned to look at him.

  “You’re going to die someday,” he said. “But I’m never going to age.”

  “Oh, come on, Lachlan,” I said. “I’ve got a few centuries in me. You don’t think that’ll be enough?”

  “Enough of you?” He shook his head. “Never.”

  I grinned at him. “You’re sweet. But… I don’t know, I don’t want to live forever.”

  “I don’t want to live forever without you,” he said. “But maybe with you. With you and…” He furrowed his brow. “You said that thing about the baby not being a dragon?”

  “Oh, right,” I said. “It’s possible that maybe he wouldn’t be. Like I said, when dragons and humans have babies together, usually the kid is human.”

  “Human with a normal human lifespan?” Lachlan asked.

  My mouth felt dry suddenly. “I… I don’t know.”

  Lachlan didn’t say anything for several moments.

  I was quiet too. I was thinking about how utterly horrible it would be if my child died hundreds of years before me. Especially since this might be the only child I could ever have.

  Lachlan gestured to my plate. “You still eating?”

  I pushed it away.

  He took it to the sink too.

  We were still quiet.

  He stood across the room from me, not facing me. “I shouldn’t have brought it up.”

  “No… we need to know.” I swallowed hard. “There are talismans, you know. Magic things that can be done to—”

  “You don’t approve of that kind of magic,” he said. “I’ve heard you rail against mages who steal from dead dragons to extend their own lifespans.”

  “Yeah, well, I don’t think I understood what it was like to know that you were dying in only eighty measly years.”

  He nodded. “I guess I see that.”

  I got up and went over to the sink. “I’ll wash up now.”

  “No, sit down,” he said. “I got this.”

  I fidgeted. “I just… I want something to do, to distract myself. I don’t want to keep thinking about it.”

  “Well, distract yourself by thinking about who it could be that sold Jackal out.”

  I groaned. “Well, I told you that it wasn’t Selah.”

  “Yes, you were right about that. So, who is it?”

  “How could I know that? I don’t even know most of the people in the clan,” I said. “I have positively no idea who it could be. You said you don’t think it’s Ossian, right?”

  “No, I don’t think it’s him, but it’s possible that it is.”

  “It seems to me like he’s hiding something,” I said. “But I guess it doesn’t make sense for him to sell out the clan like that. So, I feel like that leaves us back with Dune. Why don’t we just go to him and force him to tell us where Jackal is.”

  “How do you propose we force him?”

  “Well, we could be pretty convincing with our magic, I think,” I said. “We could threaten him. We could… hurt him.”

  “You mean torture him,” said Lachlan.

  “No,” I said. “I mean…”

  “It’s not a terrible idea,” he said. “If we were sure it was him, and that he knew where Jackal was, then applying a little force might be the easiest way to find out what we want to know. But… we can’t be sure it’s Dune. And if we blow our cover trying to find this out, that’s no good.”

  “I didn’t mean torture,” I said.

  “Right,” he said. “Of course not.” He went back to the dishes.

  Inside my tummy, the baby turned over, landing an array of tiny kicks against my rib cage. I put my hand against his movement. Okay, okay. If I had to, torture wasn’t off the board.

  * * *

  “Seriously, you’ve got nothing?” said Salix, who was sitting in our living room. “Look, we’re an hour south of where we were last week. We’re still in the Drake Cobras territory, but if we don’t figure out something soon, we’re going to be leaving this whole area behind, and we’ll never figure anything out.”

  “And lose Jackal?” I said, feeling a tight band of terror close over my spine.

  “We’re not going to lose Jackal,” said Lachlan. “I promise we will figure this out. We just… we need leads.”

  “It’s Dune,” said Salix. “Gotta be.”

  “Could be,” said Lachlan, “but I’ve got nothing that really makes me think he’s guilty. I want more than the fact that he’s the last guy to join the group and that he skipped out on a meeting to go for a walk.”

  “He says he went for a walk anyway,” I said in a low voice.

  “See?” said Salix. “Your girl’s on board with Dune too, aren’t you?”

  I shook my head. “No, I… it could be him.”

  “We don’t have any other options,” said Salix. “I mean, I’m trying to think. When would we have been close enough to the drake’s territory to deal with them? Obviously now, but they would have had to set this up a bit earlier, too.”

  “Well, do you come through here often?” said Lachlan.

  “Yeah, we always come through here. We were in the area before we went up to Sea City, and I’m trying to think if I can remember anyone who was noticeably absent for anything important…” He shook his head. “I can’t think of anything. All I can remember is that we made a trip into Athens and that was when we realized how far the drakes were expanding their territory. You know, I went through Athens yesterday, and was talking to the slayers there. They haven’t even heard of us, because they’re so used to dealing with the drakes.”

  “Yesterday?” said Lachlan, making a face. “Wasn’t Ossian saying that he went to talk to some slayers?”

  “Yeah,” I said.

  “In Athens?” said Lachlan.

  “Yeah,” I said. “He did say that.”

  Lachlan turned back to Salix. “But the slayers there never heard of the Bryant clan?”

  “What are you saying?” said Salix. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying? That Ossian…”

  “He lied about the reason he left the campsite, sounds like,” said Lachlan.

  “Yeah, he specifically said that the only time he’d left recently was to go talk to those slayers,” I said.

  “So, then, if he lied about it…” Salix shook his head. “He wouldn’t. Ossian wouldn’t.”

  Lachlan held up a finger. “Don’t say anything to anyone about this, okay? Let us go and talk to Ossian first. Maybe there’s a perfectly good explanation.”

  * * *

  “What?” said Ossian. “I can’t believe you’re asking me about this. I told you that the only reason that I wasn’t here was to talk to some slayers.”

  “In what city?” said Lachlan.

  “In Athens,” said Ossian.

  “Funny thing,” said Lachlan. “The slayers in Athens have never heard of the Bryant clan.”

  Ossian’s face visibly paled. “Did I say Athens? Because I meant Atlanta.”

  Lachlan shook his head. “Oh, no you don’t. You had plenty of time to correct that a minute ago. You’re lying to us.”

  Ossian put his
finger in Lachlan’s face. “What did I tell you about these kinds of questions? Didn’t I say that you needed to stop if you wanted to keep traveling with us? Because I’m happy to throw you both out on your ear at a moment’s notice, and don’t think I won’t do it.”

  Lachlan sighed. “Come on, Ossian, just work with us here. This looks bad for you. Explain to me what really happened. Why’d you lie to us?”

  “I’m not lying. I just got confused about the city, that’s all.”

  “I bet if I go to Atlanta, the slayers there never going to have heard of you either,” said Lachlan. “As a matter of fact, I might have some contacts there who could do some checking for me. What are they going to tell me?”

  “That I’m telling you the truth,” said Ossian. “I cannot believe that you would accuse me of doing anything that would hurt this clan. These people are my family. My children and grandchildren. You understand that?”

  “That’s why I don’t think you’re the traitor,” said Lachlan. “Or I don’t want to think it. Because it doesn’t make any sense. But it’s all I can think unless you give me some reason to understand why you’re not telling us the truth.”

  “Not another word, you hear me?” said Ossian. “You shut your mouth now, or I will rescind my invitation for you to travel with us.”

  Lachlan took a deep breath.

  “Not another word.”

  Lachlan closed his mouth.

  * * *

  Lachlan and I were heading back to our camper. “It doesn’t make sense. I can’t figure why Ossian would do that.”

  “He really wanted to get rid of Jackal,” I said. “He didn’t see it as a betrayal of the clan, but as a way to get rid of his girlfriend’s boyfriend.”

  “Well, if so, it backfired,” said Lachlan. “Selah seemed pissed at him. Disgusted even.”

  “Yeah, but it’s the only thing that makes sense,” I said. “Maybe he never intended to take over the drake’s territory at all. Maybe he worked some deal with them, and this was only the first step. It’s a win-win for him. Get rid of Jackal and have the drakes work with him.”

  “No way,” said Lachlan. “The Bryants hate drakes. They think they’re filthy magic mutts, addicted and out of control. They despise them. They use them. They don’t make deals with them.”

  I furrowed my brow. “You know, something’s been bothering me.”

  “What?” he said.

  “When we first met, you acted like you had no idea about any magical creatures at all. You said you needed my help as a consultant, and then I come to find out that you know all about drakes and magic and magical drugs. What gives?”

  He shoved his hands into his pockets and wouldn’t look at me. “We shouldn’t be talking about this out in the open.”

  I looked around. “No one is listening. Why’d you put on that act?”

  “Well, first of all,” he said quietly, “I didn’t know anything about dragons or gargoyles, so I needed your help with that. And second of all, I was a little bit suspicious of you at the beginning, and I wanted to find some way to keep you close. And finally, I wasn’t going to tell you all my secrets. I was feeling you out. Trying to figure out what you knew.”

  “So, you played me?” I said.

  “Not… really.”

  I shrugged. “You kind of did.”

  “Sorry,” he said. He slid closer to me. “There was also the fact that I thought you were really pretty, and I wanted an excuse to get your phone number.”

  I shoved him. “That is not why you asked me to be a consultant.”

  He shrugged. “It was a factor in the decision.”

  I rolled my eyes. “You weren’t attracted to me. You were cold, cold, cold. You didn’t seem into me at all.”

  “Well, I was maybe in denial about it. I was afraid that I wasn’t worthy of a relationship… Do we have to go through all this again?”

  I smiled at him. “No, I guess not.”

  “So,” he said, taking a deep breath. “Back to Ossian. If it’s him, we have to interrogate him.”

  My stomach turned over. So, our word for torture was now “interrogate.” Okay, I was fine with that.

  “But we have to be sure before we do it,” he said.

  “How can we be sure?” I said.

  “I might have an idea for that,” he said. “But I need you to follow my lead. You think you can do that?”

  “Yeah, sure, no problem,” I said.

  “Cool,” he said. “Let’s go talk to Selah again.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  “What are you guys doing here?” said Selah from the door of her RV.

  Lachlan gestured. “Let us in, Selah. We don’t want to talk about this out here where anyone might just walk by.”

  She furrowed her brow. “What the heck are you going on about? You talked to Esme, right? She told you about her crisis?”

  “Esme told us you were lying through your teeth,” I said.

  Selah shut her eyes. “God, I knew she’d fold under pressure.

  “We know everything,” said Lachlan. “We know all about Ossian, all about what you two were doing together.”

  “What?” Selah laughed a little bit. “That’s crazy.”

  “He told us, Selah,” said Lachlan. “You going to let us in or what?”

  Her face twitched. “Okay, fine. Fine.” She stepped away from the door and let us go inside.

  I found I didn’t like being in this place again, not after what had happened the last time we were in there. It had been such a bad time, and I still remembered Lachlan’s bloodshot eyes.

  Lachlan, however, didn’t seem the least bit bothered. Then again, not much seemed to get to him. And I had to follow his lead, which meant I had to pretend it wasn’t getting to me either. I squared my shoulders and gave Selah a cold look.

  Lachlan moved into the living area and made himself comfortable, sitting down on the couch and slinging an arm over the back of it. “Ossian told us everything.”

  “What are you talking about?” said Selah.

  “Ossian told us that it was all your idea. You wanted rid of Jackal, so you engineered this whole thing.”

  “What?” said Selah. “That’s crazy. I didn’t want rid of Jackal.”

  “You were cheating on him,” I pointed out, sitting down next to Lachlan.

  Selah was still on her feet. She surveyed us both, a look of confusion on her face. “Okay, yeah, but that didn’t mean that I wanted to get rid of him. I loved him.”

  I raised my eyebrows.

  Lachlan did too.

  “I did,” said Selah. “You can love someone and still not be… satisfied with them. Jackal was a great guy, but he was always partying too hard for certain parts of his anatomy to work, if you know what I mean.”

  “Whiskey dick is not a good reason to be unfaithful to someone,” I said.

  “I haven’t been a vampire for hundreds of years like half of these people,” said Selah. “Even Jackal. He was over seventy, you know? And so all of it’s new to me still. I still have this insatiable drive to—”

  “Okay,” said Lachlan, clearing his throat. “We get the picture.”

  “To live,” said Selah, glaring at him. “I need excitement in my life. Sneaking around with Ossian was exciting. But that’s all it was. It was just a thing I was doing for a while. Eventually, I would have given it up and come back to Jackal. Jackal and I are forever.”

  “Uh huh,” said Lachlan.

  “Oh, fuck you and your self-righteousness,” said Selah. “Like you’re perfect.”

  “No,” said Lachlan. “Not perfect. But some things are sacred to me. Infidelity? Not something I’m ever going to do. And you can protest all you want. We know that you and Ossian planned this whole thing. We know that you manipulated Jackal into being captured by the drakes. Hell, you wanted him killed, didn’t you?”

  “No!” said Selah, shocked. “I would never… Why would Ossian say that? He’s such an asshole. Maybe that was hi
s plan, but not mine. And if he’d ever told me that’s what he was up to, then I would have stopped him. And I could have too. Hell, maybe I still can…” She shook her head.

  “So, you’re saying that Ossian lied to us?” said Lachlan. “That you weren’t part of a scheme like that?”

  “Hell, yes, that’s what I’m saying. And if that bastard actually schemed to have Jackal killed, then I will end him.”

  “Well, let’s slow down a little,” I said, feeling horrified. Lachlan’s little scheme was going to get Ossian killed.

  Lachlan just smirked. “You can’t ‘end’ Ossian. He’s so much more powerful than you are.”

  “Maybe I wouldn’t take a direct approach,” said Selah.

  “Do you know anything about Ossian going to see slayers in Athens?” asked Lachlan.

  “Oh, he never went there,” said Selah.

  “Because he was with the drakes?” I said.

  “No…” Selah narrowed her eyes. “Is that what he said? Why would he tell you that? Why would he incriminate himself even further—”

  “So where was he?” said Lachlan. “Why’d he lie about it?”

  Selah folded her arms over her chest. “He was paying off someone—some old vampire who had him by the balls. I know all about it, because I found the blackmail note, demanding that Ossian give up the money.”

  Lachlan and I exchanged a shocked look. Neither of us had been expecting that.

  “Blackmail?” I said.

  “Ossian’s being blackmailed?” said Lachlan.

  “That’s how I’ll end him,” said Selah. “I’ll show anyone who wants to see it that note. And this group will eat him alive when they find out what he did. But he’ll deserve it, because he killed my Jackal.” And then, abruptly, she burst into tears.

  Lachlan was reeling.

  I was too, but I leaped up to pat Selah awkwardly on the back. I figured I needed to calm her down. If she kept sobbing like this, she wasn’t going to give us any information. “Hey, hey,” I said. “It’s okay. Jackal isn’t dead. We’re trying to get him back.”

  “He’s dead,” she said. “He’s as good as dead. Ossian planned this whole thing, and he wanted to get rid of him. Greedy fuck. He already has Arden. Why couldn’t he let me have Jackal? Why did he have to have both of us? Oh, God, I wish I’d never let him touch me.” She sank down on the couch, buried her face in a pillow, and started crying in earnest.